Kansas Hunter Went Deer Hunting and Got an Elk Instead

An Emporia, Kan. woman goes deer hunting… and ends up with the surprise of a lifetime.

While Fort Reily, Kan. has a healthy elk herd, Emporia, Kan. hunter Brenda Doudican has never seen one in her neck of the woods. Until last week, that is. While hunting from a ground blind last weekend she watched as two does crossed a field with what looked like a large-bodied buck with them. Upon further examination, however, she realized that it was in fact a bull elk.

“I was just amazed.” she told reporters, “I’ve been hunting all my life in this area and I had never seen an elk.”

Resisting the temptation to act fast, the Kansas hunter did the right thing and went that night to purchase an elk tag. She returned to the same ground blind the next morning in the hopes that the elk was still in the area. It was, and it became the first elk she’s ever killed.

In a season where she had already harvested a great eight-point whitetail buck, she says that it was taking the elk that she’ll remember.

“The first question I had of the game warden was, ‘Where did it come from?’” she also said. “He said it could have come from Fort Riley (where there is a healthy elk herd), but if it did, it traveled a long way. That’s about 21/2 hours from here.”

Congrats to Brenda for doing the right thing, and for having such a successful season.